It had been only twelve years ever since the young Theodore Roosevelt came to this world.

As a tall, gangly, and frail young kid who also battled asthma, he spent most of his youth “surviving” in a precarious health balance.

The slightest exertion, internal or external, would immediately leave him bedridden for days, even entire weeks.

Though this “version” of Roosevelt was rarely seen, less so talked about, since he was more often remembered for his vibrant health and robust physical vigor.

The turning point came one night when his father came into Theodore’s room and delivered a meesage that would change his life, and the life of the future Americans as well:

“Theodore, you have the mind but haven’t got the body. I’m giving you the tools to make your body. It’s going to be hard drudgery and I think you have the determination to go through with it.”

His response:

I’ll make my body.

It took him around five years of working out on a daily basis on a gym his father had built on his second-floor porch, to fight against the disease that had been keeping him at his mercy ever since he was young.

By his earlies twenties, his battle against asthma was basically over.

In some way, he had worked out the illness out of his body.

This came to be merely a beginning of a life filled with suffering and adversity, something he later called “The Strenous Life”.

But all this training had him prepared for what came along.

One of Roosevelt’s biggest strengths was his abilty of not accepting the hand fate had dealt him.

Most of us, we take our weaknesses for granted.

We assume that’s the way the universe wants us to live, and work our way through it by carrying them all along.

Roosevelt thought differently.

He saw weaknesses as being temporary.

He wasn´t going to accept his fate. Not without giving a fight.

He crafted his spiritual strength through physical exercise and physical hardiness through mental practice.

mens sana in corpe sano
sound mind in a strong body

He knew that, by practicing, training, every single day, he was working towards something far more important than beating asthma, he was building his own inner citadel.

It is said that the Jews, deprived of a stable homeland and having suffered historically, were forced to build, not physically but mentally, their own temples.

This temples became metaphysical ones, located in the mind of every believer.

This is a derivation of a Stoic concept called the inner citadel.

A fortress inside of us that no external adversity can every break down.

Though we´re never born with this structure, it must be built.

Everything takes practice, and the same thing goes with adversity.

We must prepare ourselves, always.

Because this things will happen to you.

We don’t know how.

We don’t know when.

But they will.

Life will demand an answer from you.

And you better be prepared when the moment comes.

We must always prepare ourselves for the hard road.

We wish we never had to ride through it.

But still, we must be prepared.

Because the only certainty in life, is adversity.